What a fantastic day for women

Yesterday, Rob and I visited the House of Lords to speak with Baroness Jolly who is the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Health. We asked her to pursue the failure of every one of Kent's NHS Trusts to use any of their Apprenticeship Levy to fund a single Nursing Apprenticeship in Kent.

Employers with a pay bill of over £3 million have been liable since April 2017 to pay a Government levy which will fund Apprenticeships nationwide. Half of the money paid can be claimed back by the employer to fund their own Apprenticeship schemes. But despite crying out for nurses, none of Kent's NHS Trusts has claimed this free money back to do so. The money is lost to the employer if not claimed back within two years.

Baroness Jolly used the information we provided in her speech in the House of Lords debate later in the day. You can listen to her speech by clicking here. Unfortunately, the Minister failed to answer her question about Kent.

Leaving the Houses of Parliament we went to join the crowds looking at the first statue of a woman in Parliament Square, unveiled this week. Millicent Fawcett was a suffragette who campaigned for 60 years for women to get the right to vote, and her statue marks the centenary of the suffragette movement.

Later at home I enjoyed watching the excellent speeches by Yvette Cooper, Anna Soubrey, Nicky Morgan and Rachael Reeves in the Commons debate about the need to remain in a Customs Union after Brexit to avoid significant damage to British industry. Each of these ladies chairs a Parliamentary Select Committee or was a Minister concerned with British business. Their message was the same ... MPs must put British jobs ahead of party politicking.

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